After record rainfall this spring brought an end to almost four years of withering drought, abnormally dry conditions have crept back into the area.

In fact, all of Lubbock County is now considered to be suffering from a moderate drought, according to the Water Weekly survey issued Monday by the Texas Water Development Board, while Hale County is considered to be abnormally dry.

It shows that 27 percent of the state is now under drought conditions, up from just 0.29 percent three weeks ago but down from 57 percent a year ago.

Dry conditions are spreading westward from Central and East Texas, with the entire Herald readership area - including Hale, Swisher, Floyd, Briscoe, Lamb and Castro counties -- currently considered to be abnormally dry.

The Panhandle remains generally drought free, as does most of West Texas and the Texas Gulf Coast.

“We’re not in a drought,” insists Ron Groves of Hale Center. “Average rainfall is 18 to 19 inches a year, and I’ve already had 27 to 29 inches. You can’t have a drought when you’ve had that much rain. We’re just going through a brief dry spell.”

Groves offered his comments Tuesday morning just as those attending the Hale County AgriLife Extension Field Day at Halfway were venturing outside to examine field plots following a morning shower.

“Usually when we have a wet spring, we have a dry fall, and vice versa,” Groves offered. “The opposite happened last year, with a wet fall that kept us out of the field when we needed to harvest.”

Jason Miller, Hale County AgriLife Extension agent for ag and natural resources, added that while many producers were hoping for late season rainfall to help finish the crop, additional moisture at this point is not critical.

“It’s gotten a little dry, but it’s not something we can’t deal with,” he said. “We’re moving quickly to harvest and it’s not as critical now as it would have been earlier in the growing season.”

According to a report from the Texas Water Development Board, the extreme drought in the eastern half of the state continued to expand during the past week. However, the new seasonal drought outlook through the end of December shows improvement across the state, with patches of drought persisting in East Texas.

In the short term, the National Weather Service in Lubbock reports that a storm system with rich sub-tropical moisture moved across New Mexico on Tuesday, brushing West Texas.

An approaching upper level storm system will bring a chance of showers and thunderstorms, primarily to the Texas Panhandle and western South Plains by mid-week, forecasts said. Slim rain chances will gradually sag southeastward over much of the South Plains by late week, although any rain is expected to be spotty.

With fall officially arriving Wednesday, the National Weather Service notes that temperatures will remain pleasant, with highs mostly in the 80s.